(Newser)
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Did the gorilla have to die? The Cincinnati Zoo is facing an angry backlash for shooting Harambe, an endangered gorilla, dead after a 4-year-old boy fell in its enclosure Saturday, CNN reports. Protesters who accuse the zoo of using excessive force gathered outside the zoo Sunday and the #JusticeforHarambe movement has started a petition to have the boy's parents investigated for negligence. The zoo, however, says that while it is devastated by the death of the male western lowland gorilla, the boy was in imminent danger and tranquilizers would not have worked quickly enough. A witness says that after the boy fell 15 feet into in the enclosure, the gorilla seemed protective at first, but he became agitated as visitors screaming and started dragging the boy through a moat.

A witness tells CNN that to get into the enclosure when his mother was distracted, the boy had to "climb under something, through some bushes and then into the moat." He was released from a hospital on Saturday night and his parents issued a statement thanking the zoo and saying the boy is "doing just fine," the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. "We know that this was a very difficult decision for them, and that they are grieving the loss of their gorilla," they said. The BBC notes that a similar incident in Britain in 1986 had a happier ending. When a 5-year-old boy fell into a gorilla enclosure on the island of Jersey and fractured his skull, a male silverback named Jambo stood guard, stroking the boy and keeping other gorillas away until he was rescued.

Female gorilla's are in fact maternal (check out a similar incident that happened in England) male gorilla's are not, they agitate easy, and don't know their own strength. Zoo did the right thing!

FusionShard Productions

May 31, 2016 8:04 AM CDT

So the Gorilla was acting protective at first but after onlookers started shouting they agitated it sounds like it's the onlookers fault.

Cecelia Buenaventura Navarro

May 31, 2016 4:09 AM CDT

Has Child Services investigated this incident? Where were that child's parents, or guardians, whoever the adult chaperone was/were? The child was their absolute responsibility, but they did not fulfill that role. Fifteen feet that child fell. His family is very lucky that that child did not sustain serious injuries; he could have broken his spine and become a quadriplegic, cracked his skull and died from brain hemorrhage. The parents/guardians should be investigated for extreme negligence and child endangerment. The gorilla DID NOT HAVE TO BE SHOT because IT WAS NOT THE CAUSE OF THE INCIDENT. It was the parents/guardians' fault/negligence that the child fell and found himself being dragged by the gorilla. The poor animal. Obviously, the zoo administration did not have an advanced plan to handle emergencies like this. They did not have to kill the endangered gorilla. They could have had an advanced directive of preserving the lives of endangered animals like that gorilla, rather than resorting to simply shooting and killing it. The zoo could have pre-planned to have ready a net to throw over the animal to restrain it from further contact with the child, then used a heavy-duty rope to sling around the netted animal to hold the gorilla with further restrain while rescue zoo personnel enter the enclosure to rescue the child. Common sense is needed so that no more innocent endangered animals need to be shot dead!!!